


What a Strange World We Live In - TMNT AU -

by PineapplesForWeeks



Series: TFoND TMNT AU series [1]
Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, April is basically the older sister of the turtles, Because while i do love most of the different iconic incarnations, Brotherly Love, Cute, Father-Son Relationship, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Humor, I hope, I'm creating my own little version of tmnt, I'm making my own little perfect world, It's going to be great, My First Work in This Fandom, Other, SO, Sibling Bonding, There are many things I do not like, Violence, art is fun, at all, bonding in general, for me at least, i hope nothing is terrible, it's great, maybe you too, on instgram, that's my name, theycallmelittlez, where art happens, yay, you can check out the ref sheets on my instagram
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-27
Updated: 2019-01-12
Packaged: 2019-09-28 10:13:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17181020
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PineapplesForWeeks/pseuds/PineapplesForWeeks
Summary: New York, a city of adventure, tourism, billboards and a whole lot of secrets.Some would say that those secrets were how they managed to keep the streets so strangely clean but somehow still dirty, how people can sleep with all those lights on during the night, if they really did have the best pizza.None would ever, however, say that those secrets involved mutated creatures, five of which lived right under their feet.-The four turtle brothers' mutation day has arrived and with it, becoming a year older. After their master Splinter refuses to let them go topside, they decide to take matters into their own hands.However, this proves to be a mistake. They encounter some trouble halfway through their rebellious trip, which leads to a human knowing of their existence.Let's hope Splinter never finds them out.(CURRENTLY BEING REWRITTEN)





	1. Up and Away part 1

**Author's Note:**

> I have a couple of problems with a lot of the different versions of these boys, so, naturally, I'll be making my own little version that isn't limited by anything other than my own brain.  
> Let's hope I can actually finish this...  
> I've been saying those words since 2015 and I have never followed through with them.
> 
> To get a better idea of how these kids look like, I'll be putting up ref sheets soon!

“DONNIE!”

“WHAT THE F-”

The giant turtle got pushed off his bed before he could finish. He fell on top of Leonardo's bean bag. The surprise of Michelangelo waking him up had already worn off and his eyes started closing once again.

Something poked his head multiple times. Keeping his eyes close, he lazily lifted up one of his three fingered hand and flipped Michelangelo off. At least, as much as a three fingered mutant turtle can flip someone off when their middle finger was also their index finger.

“Geeze, Don,” his brother said, ignoring the rude gesture, “you really need to trim your claws again, how long has it been? Two weeks? You want nail polish on them again?”

“Four days ago,” Donatello mumbled, his face against the stuffed hedgehog. He tilted his head to the side and dared opening his right eye. Just a tad. “They’re not that bad, are they?” And since when had he ever asked for nail polish on them?

“No, don’t worry, I was just teasing.” Through his half lidded eyes, Donatello could see a huge, heart shaped grin in the middle of a pale green face. That was all he could actually distinguish. He wasn’t wearing his (quite huge and outdated, but no one in the Hamato family knew this) glasses yet.

Michelangelo seemed to have come to the same conclusion, for he hurried towards Donatello’s organised Not-Science desk, the old wooden one  that was mostly used as storage for his trinkets. The young turtle carefully opened the box the glasses were kept in, took them out, and slowly slid them on Donatello’s short snout.

Michelangelo took the very tall and very skinny turtle (although Donatello would say that he was svelte) under the armpits and hulled him up.

“Common, bro, you just need some coffee and Leo’s algae pancakes,” the tiny mutant said with another big smile. As he started walking out of Leonardo and Donatello's rather large shared bedroom, he took Donatello’s mask from the round door handle for him.

As he pushed and prodded Donatello into a half awake state of existence, Michelangelo thanked the low placement of his two older brtohers' room for the 3012th time of his lifetime (he was counting). The round entrance was only three metres above the ground, so it was easy to climb out even without the use of the ladder and a half asleep genius in your arms.

“Leo!” Michelangelo called out as he entered the orderly kitchen, a note of urgency in his voice. “Donnie’s up-but-not-really! Is everything ready for his majestic presence?” Donatello sneezed noisily and almost choked on his own spit.

“Majestic,” Michelangelo said with a sigh.

Leonardo rolled his eyes in amusement. He absentmindedly pushed Donatello’s very crooked glasses up his nose again as he put everything on the low table. He put the hot pancakes in the middle of each one of the chipped plates carefully. He poured water in the colourful plastic cups and straightened the pillows they all sat on, making sure there was as little dust as possible.

“Alright, I think everything is good!” Leonardo said, smiling slightly in satisfaction. He gently prodded Donatello towards his seat and let him sit down. His eyes were closed and crusty, making Leonardo sigh. He went to the pot of coffee that had just finished brewing. He filled up the grey coffee cup with ‘Worlt’s #1 Turdle Jenius’ written on it in surprisingly neatly handwriting. He took the coffee cup and almost shoved it into Donatello’s gloved hands.

“Drink up, Don, rise and shine,” the blue banded turtle said. Donatello mechanically took a sip of the burning hot drink, which quickly turned into gulps as the caffeine entered his system.

“Are Sensei and Raph awake yet?” Michelangelo asked the eldest of the four brothers.

“Master Splinter is doing his morning meditation as always. Raph will come out of his room once he’s done feeding Spike and Tiny. We’ll need some new fruits and veggies for them both. I’ll tell Sensei to go get some more on the surface during his next supply run.”

“But you’re forgetting something, Leo,” Michelangelo said with a conspiratorial grin. “We’ll be able to go on the surface  _ ourselves _ soon.”

“It’s been eight years Mickey, you were 6. He was probably just saying that to make you shut up about the idea,” Leonardo said, folding his purple apron in a neat pile and adding it to the dirty laundry basket. It mostly consisted of whatever human clothing Michelangelo had found on their last visit to the homeless people place further down in the abandoned subway stations.

“Sensei might also have said ‘in eight years’ because he thought that eight years was a very long time,” Donatello said in a groggy voice, showing that his brain was finally sort of maybe working. “Now that our mutation day is here, he might say no to us asking.”

“Unless we do our puppy dog faces,” Leonardo pointed out.

“Don’t give him any ideas.”

But Michelangelo’s face was already being filled with a devious grin. Well, as devious as a sunshine-like heart-shaped grin could get with those big blue eyes and dimpled chubby cheeks.

“Sensei won’t fall for that anyway,” Leonardo said. “He’s a stoic ninja master whose sons are all fairly adorable and good looking. He’s used to it by now.”

“The world is full of surprises, Leonardo,” Michelangelo said, nodding solemnly and pretending to strike his ancient beard wisely. He was interrupted by a low and rough voice at the doorway.

“How are you bozos doing?” 

A very strong looking turtle with a red mask resting above his eyes like a bandanna appeared in the entrance of the kitchen, his pet tortoise in his hand and a small white and black turtle (Donatello called it a Diamondback Terrapin, but no one really cared to remember it) on his shoulder. He had a coca-cola can in his free hand. The red can was quickly snatched away swiftly by Leonardo before being placed in the high-tech homemade fridge.

“No coke in the morning Raph. Drink water, tea or coffee, much less sugar in it,” Leonardo said. He sat back down on his cushion.

“It’s diet coke,” Raphael argued, sitting down in his own seat next to Donatello’s.

“It’s still coca-cola.”

“Says Mr. ‘I put five spoonfuls of sugar in my tea’.”

“Only on the holidays. You can drink coke on the holidays or during the weekend.”

“Weekend my a-”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” Michelangelo placed a finger on his own mouth. “Man, dude. My homie brosaurus mushroom slice. No swear words shall be spoken in this household.”

“Technically this isn’t a house, we live in a sewer attached to an abandoned subway station-”

“Donnie, I love you, but I’m trying to be a stern mom here.”

“Isn’t that my job?”

“Hate to break it to you, Leo, but you’re the babysitter at best,” Donatello deadpanned, drinking noisily from his cup while staring at the blue banded turtle over the rim of his glasses, which were sliding towards the tip of his nose. He looked like he had just spilled some half-truths at a family gathering and was ready for the drama to begin.

Michelangelo snorted and choked on his water. Leonardo had started stuffing his breakfast into his mouth as quickly as he could. His face was red.

Master Splinter entered the room at this sight. He raised a questioning and furry eyebrow at them all. Raphael was openly cackling at the situation. His pet turtles simply ate the remains of their breakfast, not giving a damn about the situation.

Leonardo’s cheeks were bulging with pancakes and he couldn’t do much except try to chew threw it all. Michelangelo was still coughing while Donatello kept on calmly sipping his drink, although his shoulders were shaking in silent laughter and his big glasses had started slipping halfway down his cup.

Splinter wondered how the four if them could get so worked up over such small amount of entertainment.

 

The six foot tall rat cleared his throat and the four turtles stopped, completely frozen.

“Uh-good morning Sensei,” Raphael said, sitting up with his back as straight as he could. He pulled down his mask over his eyes and sat as straight as he could in an effort to look orderly and awake.

“Leo made algae pancakes,” Mickey said enthusiastically. He inhaled to say something else but was caught by another fit of coughing. “Wow, that water’s persistent.”

“Thank you, Leonardo,” Splinter said to his eldest son, who beamed at him proudly with a box-shaped grin. It was slightly ruined by the bits of food stuck in between his teeth.

Breakfast went by nicely and they all enjoyed it as best they could. They ate everything, since this would be their only only meal until the next day, or if Leonardo and Michelangelo found the ingredients to make a cake. Until then, they’ll eat a few snacks if their hunger is too difficult to ignore. They usually ate as much healthy food as they could, sometimes even ordered Japanese takeout if their penny collection was large enough. That had only happened four times in the family’s time in the sewers, and it had been quite enjoyable.

The fact that this was their reality, despite the fact that Splinter went out every night to get them food and Donatello worked hard to make their living space liveable, advanced and safe, was incredibly frustrating for everyone. Especially when you had four teenage mutants and their old father to feed, all of which were ninja who desperately needed to be healthy and well fed.

However, only Splinter and Donatello actually knew about these problems, one from personal experience from living an ordinary human life and knowing how much food one standard person has, the other from hours on the Internet looking up charts, diagrams, percentages and information on turtle and human biology, which involve daily food intakes required to be healthy. They had decided to keep these problems to themselves. It would only make Michelangelo  panic, Leonardo worry and Raphael angrier and more determined to get to the dangers of the surface.

But for now, they were content and happily eating algae pancakes and that was enough until the four brothers could go discover the world.

 

“So, sensei,” Raphael said, nonchalantly feeding Tiny and Spike another piece of slightly stale lettuce, “Today is our mutation day. Mickey’s turning fourteen, me and Don are about to be fifteen, Leo’s sixteen. We’re getting older, aren’t we?.”

“That is right, Raphael,” Splinter said, quietly sipping his water.

“You said to us, eight years ago, that we’d be able to come to the surface and explore it in eight years. It’s been eight years, sensei.” Everyone could hear the strain Raphael’s voice had slowly gained as he stared straight into his empty plate. “We should be able to go to the surface from now on, right, Master Splinter?”

“You are all far too young-”

“Fuck being young!”

“Whoa, hey, Raph,” Donatello said, frowning and placing one gloved hand on his brother’s shoulder. The red masked turtle shook it off.

“Sensei, we’ve been waiting for so long!” he continued. “I-We want to go discover the outside world! We’re well trained, well prepared and if we stay here for one more day I’m going to go crazy!”

“Raphael,” Splinter said, the word sharp and firm on his tongue. “Calm yourself. You are causing Michelangelo distress.”

Raphael froze and forced himself to relax as he looked down at the orange masked turtle (since when had he been standing?) His blue eyes were wide and he was hyperventilating. Leonardo took the youngest by the hand and waited for him to calm down, acting as a form of reassurance.

“I’m okay, I’m okay now,” Michelangelo said after a minute. His breath had evened and his eyes were focused again. “Thanks.”

Leonardo nodded, breathing out a small sigh of relief that it had been brief and not too bad this time. He turned his attention back to their father, his hand still holding Michelangelo's.

“Raphael,” Splinter said once he determined it to be safe, pinching the area in between his black eyes. “You have to understand. Your training is not yet complete, and it will not be for a long time. You must stay hidden until it is.”

“With all due respect, Master Splinter,” Leonardo said politely, “you told us that making mistakes and experiencing new things was the best way to learn.”

“Exactly!” Donatello threw in. “Isn’t it  _ better  _ to go to the surface now? If we are to learn, we have to make the mistakes and experience new things. Such as going to the surface.”

“We’ll go at night and only be up there for at least five hours,” Michelangelo said, his grin returning to his face. “We’ll come back in time for training and resting time.”

“And for sleep time,” Leonardo added.

“Please, sensei?” Michelangelo tried to look at pitiful and sad as possible.

Splinter felt himself softened slightly. “Next year, you can go.”

Groans were heard around the table.

“But Sensei-”

“No ‘buts’! Next year, when you are ready.” The giant rat stood up and walked out of the kitchen, heading for the dojo. “If you truly, truly, believe to be ready, tell me. I will meditate on it.”

The four brothers stayed silent around the table.

“I will meditate on it,” Raphael said in a mocking voice. Leonardo slapped his arms, glaring at him.

Donatello smirked. “Master Splinter said that we would be able to go next year. Who said we had to listen to him?”

“Master Splinter,” Leonardo said, chugging the rest of his water. He turned a disapproving look at Donatello. “We are  _ not  _ sneaking out Donnie. He said that if we were sure we could-”

“But Leo,” Raphael said, “don’t you want to show that you can lead us and that you’re independent? Isn’t it better to show off your skills outside of the lair  _ now  _ instead of later?”

“Well…” Leonardo saw what his brother was doing. He was appealing to his ego, which he knew he sadly had. It, more often than not, worked marvellously. He sighed. He really did want to go to the surface and explore, see if he could stay as quiet, stealthy and quick as he was in the sewers.

“Since you three are obviously going to go anyway without me,” he said, trying to sound reluctant, “I’ll come with you. As supervision and as your leader.”

“Thank you, Leo, you’re the best babysitter!” Michelangelo said, briefly hugging Leonardo’s arm. The blue banded turtle sighed.

“Everyone, get your waiting gear ready for the morning and meet me in my lab once Sensei’s asleep,” Donatello said, a manic, gap toothed grin on his face and an odd twinkle in his brown eyes. He took off his large glasses, tied on his purple mask and pushed them back on with a flourish. “Our first mission is go.”


	2. Up and Away part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The bois get ready for an illegal battle with the unknown.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Decided to repost this, make it longer and fix a couple of things.

Donatello’s laboratory was surprisingly large and well lit, considering it was underground. It was located in the abandoned subway station humans had called ‘Worth Street subway station’ that they had connected to their home in the sewers through a manhole and a sewer drain. The lab took up most of the space. There was a large metal table with singed edges and deep scratches all over it next to a bunch of cupboards clumsily nailed to the brick wall. There were papers and empty vials carefully stacked on top of it, full of Donatello’s messy and loopy handwriting. The floor had patches of soot and a crevices everywhere. The four brothers had once moved two old subway cars and had dragged it until it rested against one of the station’s walls. This was where all of Donatello’s half finished or abandoned projects and his scientist supplies were stored. There was also a large area next to a collapsing flight of stone stairs closed off with stitched together curtains made out of old human clothes and blankets. Inside was a hospital bed that Splinter had found while scavenging for more medical supplies.

It was a very nice lab if you account for the fact that it was in an old subway station and that it was built mostly by one preteen with the help of his none-scientific old dad and brothers.

“Okay, gentlemen!” Leonardo said in his best Hero Voice, adjusting the collar of his x-large blue tank top and the long sleeved black shirt under it he had chosen to wear. It was the beginning of spring, after all. They had to stay warm with what they had. “This is a dangerous mission we are about to take part in. We must be quick witted, determined and patient, like true ninja. Has everyone brought their weapons?”

“You’re the only one who’s gear is entirely weapons,” Donatello said, cutting through his brother’s speech. He patted the large pockets of his old and dark trench coat. There was the faint outlines of pieces of technology and even shurikens. “Mine is mostly tech, Mickey basically only has his skateboard on him and Raph has…” He checked on the back of his brother’s shell.

“An emergency kit?”

“Better be prepared,” Raphael said, his face turning red. “But I do have lots of kunai and some spare arrows if anyone has a bow. And a spare jacket in the emergency kit.”

“No one here has a bow, Raph.”

“I’ll use these to stab people in the eyes, then.”

“We have blinding powder for that,” Michelangelo cut in.

“We are not going to stab people’s eyes or blind them,” Donatello said, exasperated. “Seriously, I know we always have to be prepared but you three are overdoing it.”

“Well, how many lock picks and portable phone chargers do you carry when we go on supply runs in subways, Donatello?” Michelangelo said, defensive.

“...Point taken.”

“It’s good to be prepared,” Leonardo dismissed. “Now, since everyone’s ready, let’s go. We’ll go through the shorter route, the one with the smaller tunnels. Or else Sensei will notice our absence and come get us immediately.”

 

It was not shorter. It took longer than if they used the larger tunnels because of how cramped they were and they felt even more disgusting than they normally did.

Michelangelo couldn’t believe he would have to clean his nice brown sweater and grey beanie again. A few new rips appeared in Raphael’s dark jeans jacket. He would have to stitch them back again.

They made it eventually, however. Raphael and Leonardo forced the sewer gate opened and they climbed out, nervous and full of expectations. Donatello helped Michelangelo up, then joined their two other brothers.

They were in a small alley, dirty and fit for homeless people. They soaked up what they saw and heard, looked around and analyzed the dumpsters and rats skittering across the asphalt They turned around and what they saw took their breaths away. Rows of skyscrapers and apartments, most of which had beautiful lights pouring from their small windows. They could hear the distant honking and screeching of cars. A homeless man pushing a cart was walking down the street opposite of them. It was the most beautiful thing any of them had ever seen.

“Holy shit,” Donatello breathed. No one bothered to scold him.

 

They were very cautious at first, sticking to the shadows and being as quiet as they could.

Until Michelangelo saw a clothing shop and squealed particularly loudly.

“Mickey!” they whisper shouted at him.

“Guys. Clothes.  _ Human  _ clothes!” He pressed his snout against the glass, looking into the dark shop. There were mannequins with outfits on display. They were all female mannequins with feminine clothes on, but Michelangelo wanted them  _ all _ .

“Don’t steal them, Mike,” Leonardo warned him, walking to his youngest brother’s side. “I know you and Don have this… thing, about stealing. Once we have our setups and websites up, we can save up some money to buy you new human clothing.”

Michelangelo sighed in disappointment. “Okay. Promise?”

“Sure, little dude.” The orange banded turtle grinned. “Let’s go-”

“OH MY GOD IS THAT A FUCKING MACBOOK? 80% OFF?!” Leonardo jumped at Donatello’s shrieking. “How is that even POSSIBLE?!”

“Donnie!” they all whisper shouted at him.

“Guys, do you realise what this means?” His smile was so completely joyful Raphael worried for his sanity.  “I can get this once our setups and websites are up! It’s, like, a hundred dollars!”

“We could get a lot of things once our setups and websites are up,” Raphael muttered.

“Obviously, we’ll have to focus on getting the essentials and improving our lifestyle first,” Donatello said, completely lost ot the world as he observed the computer in the closed electronics shop. “Use it mostly to buy ourselves food. I heard you could ask for groceries and get them delivered right to your door! The wonders of technology. Maybe I could get us a better TV. We only have the news channel and old cassette tapes, we should improve on it.”

“Donnie, hate to burst your bubble, but we should go,” Leonardo said. He had spotted a pair of small lights approaching their positions. “Back to the shadows, guys, there’s someone coming.”

They quickly all slipped into the nearest alley and behind the closest trash cans.

When the red scooter arrived, the turtles got their first glimpse at an average, real life human. He didn’t look like the ones they saw in the movies or even the news channel.

He had long black hair that peeked through his helmet, small brown eyes and was tan despite winter having just passed. He had acne all over his face and the start of bristly little hairs on his jaw. He wore a coat over an ugly red shirt that said ‘Antonio’s Pizza Pies’. The scooter was also bright red.

He stopped and looked around. He took out a piece of paper and read it. He sighed very loudly, rolling his eyes.

“Got lost  _ again _ . I  _ told  _ Giselle I can’t do delivery, but nooo, she doesn’t want to listen to me.”

He took out a sheet of paper from his pocket, as well as a phone.

“Hey, watch this,” Raphael said, smirking. Before Leonardo could stop him, he slipped out and stood behind the young human. He tapped his shoulder. The human turned around to see who was behind him and came face to face with a scaly green and snarling snout, sharp teeth bared in a grin and glaring amber eyes. Raphael growled, his third eyelid sliding over his eyes, and cackled. The human shrieked and sped off on the little scooter.

Leonardo jabbed the back of his red masked brother’s neck with two of his fingers.

“Ow!”

“Don’t ever do that again! We have to stay hidden, Raph!” He looked up, narrowing his sharp blue eyes. “The rooftops. Easier to travel and see from there, harder for humans to spot us. Let’s go, guys.”

“You’re the leader,” Raphael muthered, crossing his arms and looking at the ground.

_ That’s right, I am _ , Leonardo thought. He quickly stopped himself from saying it, however. It would only cause more trouble than needed.

Once they were up, it was much easier to travel and gave them all some good training. They had learned how to jump and do flips in the sewers using boxes, walls, bars, anything they could get their hands on to create obstacles. It was liberating to finally put it into practice.

As they went around the city, feeling free as birds and almost forgetting that they were going directly against their sensei’s orders, they soon arrived in the calmer, poorer streets. They spotted a very large building halfway to falling apart. It was old and in need of repairs, with graffiti covering up most of its dirty walls. The door was half opened and they could hear loud voices from inside.

“What’s going on?” Donatello asked. 

“An insult to hard working graffiti artists,” Michelangelo said, looking disgusted at the warehouse. Donatello ignored him and slipped his glasses off. He pulled down his high tech goggles, changing the settings so that the yellow lense was in front of his right eye. It closed up on one of the broken windows of the warehouse, effectively showing what could be seen inside.

There was a large group of human men and women dressed in jackets and torn jeans. They all had some kind of weapon aimed towards another human, this one much younger looking. The hood of their dark jacket hid their face.

“There’s a group of dangerous looking humans threatening one younger one,” Donatello told his brothers. He switched the lens to blue to detect any heat signatures. There was another figure, crouched and hidden, not too far away from the door. 

“There’s another one, too, near the door. They’re hidden and scared, I don’t think they’re hostile.”

“What do we do, Leo?” Michelangelo asked their leader.

Leonardo did not answer immediately. He could tell that he’d have to think about this quickly yet deeply.

There were humans down there, armed and obviously dangerous. While they were probably better than them, it could end up involving his brothers or the two innocent humans getting hurt. Maybe even end up revealing the four mutant turtles’ existence.

They had already disobeyed Splinter by being on the surface. They knew they’d been in big trouble when they returned. Adding ‘Being Wounded and Discovered’ to the list would make things worse than it already was for them.

But the poor humans down there…

“I don’t… Okay. What do you guys think we should do?” He might as well forget about his pride and go with what was more practical; getting the opinion of people that didn’t think like him, who thought outside the box.

“I say we should go, since there’s someone in danger,” Michelangelo said, raising his hand up as if he was a student in class. “Plus, if it goes perfectly, Sensei might see how good we are and ‘meditate on it’.”

“I agree with Mikey!” Raphael said, already unsheathing his twin sai.

“I don’t. Not really, anyway,” Donatello interjected, frowning. “It’s a risk. We’re good, yes, better than whatever this gang has up their sleeves, but there are a lot of risks. But if we are to learn, we have to make the mistakes and experience new things…” He was silent for a moment before a determined gleam overtook his almond shaped eyes. “I say we go. Take out the gang members quickly and leave.”

Leonardo sighed. He was doing that a lot lately. “Alright. Let’s go then. Keep to the shadows  _ completely _ , understand? Take out any light sources if there are any, make it quick and practical. Nothing complicated, we just have to make sure the two civilians don’t get hurt. Or see us.”

“Then off we go, fearless babysitter,” Raphael said, grinning. The four turtles jumped down onto the apartment below them and headed for the warehouse.


	3. Up and Away part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Characters are here.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feel free to tell me what you think and if I made any mistakes! I'll gladly read your critiques and fix my autograph!

“Are you _sure_ we should be doing this, April?”

April turned her head to look at her best friend Irma, crouched behind her as they peeked through an old and dusty window. Behind her glasses, her eyes were uncertain.

“I mean,” the dark haired teenager continued, “this is one of the Purple Dragon’s warehouses. Going in without any weapons is a horrible, _horrible_ idea. I’m betting they’re going to come here later, it’s dangerous.”

“I have a baseball bat.”

“They have guns.”

“Well, I have a baseball bat. These things are deadly.”

“So are guns.”

“...Yeah, okay, you have a point. But, come on. Aren’t you curious?’

Irma didn’t answer. She simply pursed her dark lips.

April smirked. “It’ll make Casey jealous.”

“For what reason?” Irma said, now much more intrigued.

“Well, both that you’ve been inside a Purple Dragon warehouse and that you’re hanging out with me.”

“I do love making other people jealous.”

Irma thought about it for a few more moments before sighing. “Fine. But I’m staying here, you can go inside. Let’s just lie and say that I went in with you. He doesn’t watch our vids anyway, I checked.”

“Thanks for the backup,” April jokes. “Keep your phone out. I want you to film it.”

“Should we post it on Instagram?”

“Maybe Youtube. More chow for the subs.” This was a terrible idea.

“Okay. Off you go.”

April gripped her baseball bat tighter with her small hand, her dark knuckles turning almost white. She pulled the hood of her dark green jacket over her head, only a few strands of black and red curls peeking through.

“Off I go,” she whispered, before pushing the window open. She slipped through it with a surprising little amount of skills for her size. She caught her foot before landing on the other side and fell flat on her face. Her baseball bat fell out of her hands and onto her head.

“Ow.”

“April, remember, if you get hurt I have band aids in my purse.”

“Thanks, Irma, you’re a real help.”

“You’re welcome.”

April realised that her glasses had fallen off her face. She patted the ground before finally finding them. She slipped them onto her face and realised that one of the lenses was now broken. She groaned.

“Seriously? How am I going to explain this to Aunt Becky?” she whispered. She decided that thinking about that was for leter, when she had time to think up a believable lie. Right now, her job was to explore the abandoned Purple Dragons headquarters before they arrived. According to some shady ass people at school, these places were always busy during the night. She hoped Irma and her didn’t end up meeting a bunch of gang members. That would be very bad, considering the Purple Dragons was the most ruthless gang in New York City as far as April knew.

She inspected around, occasionally taking out her phone to take pictures and film for short periods of time. Irma probably had a good view of her from where they both were, so there was no need for her to film anything. They could just talk about the experience to the camera back in Irma’s room or something.

As she pussy footed (heh) around the warehouse, her eyes caught a brief glint of shining metal. Curious, she made her way towards it. Once she was close enough, she realised it was some sort of metal box. It was very shiny and clean, a clear contrast to everything else around her. It had an odd symbol on its top, although she couldn’t see it clearly due to the amount of light being so low. She tried to open it, but the lid wouldn’t budge. Either it was locked or she needed start going to the gym with Casey again.

Her phone buzzed in her pocket. She took it out and read the text Irma had sent her.

_PD mmbrs here go_

April mouthed a couple of swear words (if aunt Becky were hear she would’ve been deprived of her electronics for a week) and stuffed her phone back into her pocket. She pulled her hood lower and started running towards the nearest exist; a dirty window that looked already halfway to falling apart. Using her baseball bat, she shattered the glass. The sound was loud and echoed through the entire building. She climbed through the hole, cutting her hands in the process.

She dropped on the other side, about as gracefully as the last time she slipped through a window.

“Shit!” she muttered. She took her baseball bat again, feeling the old wood digging into her cuts. She put on her glasses again, since they had fallen like last time, and got up. She started running.

She got about a metre away before getting grabbed roughly by the arm.

“And where do you think _you’re_ going, Missy?”

April gulped.

Aunt Becky was going to kill her.

 

“So,” the biggest out of all of them said, taking out his hand gun. The ones behind him looked eager, crowbars and baseball bats in hand. There were a few who didn’t look as excited, but they wisely kept quiet.

“So,” he repeated again. April thought he sounded like a broken record. “You decided t’ sneak into our lil’ place here.” He had a very thick New York accent, even worse than Casey’s, which was saying something. “Lil’ girl thinks she can sneak into our place. She thinkin’ wrong, right, boys?” The gang members behind him nodded in agreement. “Lil’ _black_ girl thinks she alright.”

“Okay, I know I’m little and that I’m a girl and that’s fine, but the fact you stressed on ‘black’ is all kinds of wrong,” April said, shaking her head. “Listen, can I just go? I need to be home and drink my tea. It’s been sitting there since noon and I do _not_ like wasting a good cup o’ tea.”

“Listen, kiddo,” a woman said, looking fed up. She had a knife. “Let our good pall Hun beat you up, then you can go. Then, maybe…” She smirked. It was not a nice smirk. “Your little friend can call the hospital. For you and for herself, if Chad and Michael arrive here on time.”

April’s lips trembled and her hands were shaking.

This had been a terrible, _terrible_ idea. What if Irma didn’t get to call the cops? What if they didn’t arrive in time? This was a pretty poor and quiet part of the city, an ambulance wouldn’t come that quickly if they got hurt.

What fi they _died_ here? All for posting another fucking adventure on their account and to make Casey annoyed.

The giant man, who the woman had called Hun, cracked his knuckles. He had a nasty look on his ugly face. The others behind him advanced as well, and April knew she was fucked.

She dived for the one that had her baseball bat. He yelled and tried to throw her off, but she bit his hand before he could. He dropped the bat and she took it. Her hands had problems holding onto it correctly, but she gripped it as hard as she could and swung it at the man’s face. He fell to the ground with a bleeding nose and was knocked uncontious.

April felt proud for about half a second before someone kicked her in the side. She swung blindly with her bat but missed. Her left wrist was grabbed and she was pulled up. Her feet couldn’t touch the ground anymore. She saw Hun’s fist pull back, and without thinking, she kicked him as hard as she could in the balls. Despite the fact that he had three times the muscle as the average bodybuilder, it did the trick, and he dropped her. She stumbled away, dragging the bat with her. She tripped a man with it, kicked him in the stomach with her knee and continued running.

But she was outnumbered and outmatched, and the rest caught up to her. Hun, his expression a harsh grimace, loomed over her as the other Purple Dragons hold her down. 

"Well, now we'll just have to kill ya," he said. "That kind of offence ain't easily forgiven by us Dragons, Missy."

He pulled back one of his huge fists, ready to hit her and probably break her nose, too. April tensed and closed her eyes, feeling a scream bubble up in her throat.

The punch never came.

She opened one of her eyes, still terrified, and noticed Hun a few feet away on his butt.

"Attackin' defenceless civilians, are we now?" a voice said scathingly. It had an odd sort of whistle to it and was slightly nasally, but was full of bite. April couldn't spot the owner of this voice.

There was a short burst of laughter similar to the one of a child's before something flashed across April's vision. A second later, two of the gang members were unconscious.

Everyone, including herself, was now more than a little freaked out. However, unlike the ones around her, she was also full of relief.

There was brief glint of metal and three more were down. Two of them had a split lip while another had a deep cut on his hand. They were also knocked out. There was a sound like sand and flour falling and a cloud of white smoke exploded in two other people's eyes. They shouted and clung at their eyes with their hands.

"It burns!" one of them said, right before they both fell to the ground. April caught a flash of red, then it was gone. In the next thirty seconds, all of them were down except for Hun, who was now looking quite paranoid.

April got up and looked around. What if they decided to hurt her? What if they were just here to fight for fun?

She gripped her bat harder.

 

 

The big, bad and ugly leader was now looking around, looking terrified. The innocent civilian had reclaimed their baseball bat, and while they didn't look as frantic as their attacker, they were alert.

Leonardo dashed forward and hit him in the neck with the hilt of his katana in just the right place, effectively bringing him down. He tried getting back up again, but Donatello and Raphael hit him hard in the head.

"Cowabunga," they heard Michelangelo whisper dramatically from somewhere above them. It was actually pretty creepy, although none of them would ever tell him that.

There was a flash. They disapeared into the darkness once more, slipping out of the abandoned warehouse.

 

April took out her phone and took a picture of the three shadows before her. The flash surrounded them briefly, and when it was gone, they had disappeared completelyas well.

She had barely caught a glimpse of the mysterious and dangerous shadows with white eyes. She opened her phone and looked through her photos. Seeing that she had effectively taken one of three of her saviours, she grinned and hurried out of the warehouse.

She found Irma passed out on the ground with her phone buzzing as it called 911. Two muscular men were hidden in the bushed not too far away sporting large bumps on their heads, their eyes swollen.

"911, what's your emergency?"

"My friend just got attacked by Purple Dragons, we need someone here now," April rushed out, taking her best friend into her arms and pinning the phone in between her shoulder and ear. "The gang members are unconscious in the warehouse we're at, please come get them!"

"Alright, hon. Where are you?"

April told them the street name and described the building before hanging up.

She waited with Irma still unconscious on the sidewalk, flashing fearful glances at the building behind them. She took out her phone again and looked at the picture long and hard.

Three oddly shaped shadows with glowing eyes just saved her and Irma's ass. There was maybe a fourth one, too.

April's face got a determined look and she glared at the picture.

"I'm going to figure out who you four are. You'll be another one of New York City's little secrets that I'll uncover, trust me."


	4. The Most Important Part of One's Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sleep and using Ninja Skills TM to fool your father.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feel free to tell me what you think and if I made any mistakes! I'll gladly read your critiques and fix my autograph!
> 
> Something short as a little bridge between the previous chapter and the one after this.  
> I didn't want to add more problems yet to the boys, so I made Splinter oblivious. While the turtles have been known to sneak out occasional as kids, but they had stopped when they encountered a sewer city worker. Splinter has full faith in his sons to obey him.  
> He obviously doesn't remember much from being a rebellious "I Know Everything" teenager.

Michelangelo peaked over the surface of the water. His blank white eyes scanned the lair for any sign of Splinter. When he didn’t, he signaled for his brothers to come up with a thumbs up. All four of them stepped out of the dirty water, smelling gross and horrible, but that was normal for them. They lived in a  _ sewer _ , they’ll always smell bad to the untrained nose.

They’ll all just take a shower when they woke up. 

Michelangelo almost whispered a ‘goodnight’, but a large hand wrapped in red bandages covered his mouth before he could. He and Raphael climbed up the ladder leading into their messy room, which luckily only had a curtain that didn’t make any sound other than the rustling of cloth. It could easily be mistaken for a teenage turtle mutant shifting while sleeping.

The two brothers helped each other with taking their equipment off to avoid making any loud noises and climbed into their separate living spaces; an old mattress hidden by a blanket hanging from the ceiling and a bright yellow hammock engulfed in clothes and pillows. The two brothers practically passed out the second they were comfortable.

 

Donatello and Leonardo opened the wooden door of their room carefully. It creaked loudly.

_ Shit _ , Donatello mouthed. Leonardo glared at the door’s hinges as if they had personally offended him, which might as well have been the case.

Splinter could hear a fly flying in the kitchen from his room behind and linked to the dojo. He would surely hear the creak of their door.

Donatello knew that they should have oiled it properly two weeks ago.

Leonardo hand signed for him an idea; he stays inside while Donatello pretends to go get food or work on something, since it happened often.

The purple masked turtle nodded. They both stepped through their door (the bastard) and took off their gear there. Donatello yanked his mask off of his head, hung it on the door handle, and walked out as tiredly as he could.

“My sons?” he heard his master ask. Soon enough, Splinter appeared through the entrance between the living room and the dojo. He spotted Donatello, lumbering his way to his lab. He looked absolutely exhausted and tired.

“Donatello, what do you think you’re doing?” he asked his second youngest son, firmly yet kindly.

“Lab ‘xperiment,” he said, and that was enough for Splinter to guide him back to his room half dead to the world. He opened the door to the room which creaked loudly (they should really oil it properly) and gently forced Donatello inside.

“You can do that tomorrow, my son,” he said, hoping it would appease him. “For now, rest. For once,” he added, exasperated.

Donatello climbed the ladder to the bunk bed. He was already unconscious the second his head hit the pillow, limbs half out of the bed.

Splinter sighed and closed the door behind him. He hadn’t noticed the lumb of blankets in the corner.

Leonardo smiled under his covers, unbelieving that it had worked, right before falling asleep.


End file.
